artnlight

Down the memory lane & into my Rajasthan trip archives. In Bikaner we stayed at this grungy old world heritage Haveli called the Bhairon Vilas.We reached this place at some ridiculous hour at midnight and walked straight into the bedroom we had booked for the night. This leg of the journey was to be short, we were to set off the next day to Jaisalmer. So we walked in with eyes not quite wide open & quite tired into the bedroom and our eyes widened, and widened... what was this?? One look towards the moth eaten old fabric draped near the headboards and we cracked up!!! This bedroom certainly had a lot of charachter. In anycase we were seriously tired & this wore down the shock of the room quicker than we imagined.
 We woke up, stepped out for breakfast & and what we saw really charmed us. Bharon Vilas had more going for it than the interesting bedroom we found ourselves in, we had a nice breakfast with a musician playing live for us. And this place was gorgeous, without wasting words, see for yourself the unintentionally funny bedroom & lots of sunlit Rajasthani beauty. Bhairon Vilas was a brilliant mix of grunge, quiet charm & dramatic stunning.





It feels good to be back here. I really miss blogging when I don't manage to make time for it. How have you guys been? I'd love to heat whats been happening at your end :) and what is it that you wish you could make more time for?

Its truly happy making to get back to blogging. In my last post, turned out that I posted pictures of 2 of my friends feet without even knowing it. Happy coincidences :) Talking of happy takes me back to Rajasthan and I must share this very beautiful but strange temple we went to. The Karni Mata temple is 30 kms from Bikaner & we went huddled and cold in an autorickshaw to the place. We had heard it was a rat temple - yes, you heard right, I said rat as in the rodents and we were as curious whether we will actually get to see rats scurrying, if we will be able to handle it. Will the rats be fat from all the milk ( we had heard that one of the ways to appease the deity is to feed the rats with milk - ye mera India...) We were just so curious. We were greeted by a very normal though beautiful looking temple from the outside...

Aaah.. the 1st proof of the rat connection...

Next to the carved Shiva are carved tiny rats- making for a nice design element...hmmm...

On a more serious note, the marble carving was exquisite, here's a sample.
And now for the real point of interest. As we stepping in gingerly into the temple, mentally prepared for a multitude of rats, what we actually saw was many rats feeding from large bowls of milk & they did not look as healthy as we imagined them.

And strangely while something about the vibes in the temple calmed me it emboldened my normally docile & insect hating friend... who now only wanted to be touched by the scurrying rats in the temple (a tiny nibble by any of the temple rats is said to bring good luck to the bitten!!!) so while I was clicking from a safe distance, my friend was trying to get bitten by the rather peaceful temple mice.

Thankfully one of them scurried over her feet before long. And a debate whether it qualified to bring luck ensued.

For some reason a lot of newly wed couples also came to take the blessings of Karni Mata who is worshiped as the incarnation of the goddess Durga by her followers.

And here is the mildly aggressive devotee who insisted I take a picture of her. All in all a strange but interesting temple experience :)

As our rickshaw sped through the bylanes of the old city in Bikaner I saw these buildings and was like, wait a minute, what are these buildings? That's when the driver told us these were Havelis built by merchants many centuries ago. While some are inhabited most of these magnificent structures are empty. Lane after winding lane lined with the most intricately carved exteriors. I remembered the Ahmedabad pols, but these were more regal and certainly not as 'lived-in' as the pols in Ahmedabad.

"Havelies are marvels in home architecture. Such havelies or residential houses do not exist anywhere in the world. They are the pride of Bikaner, says great author and philosopher, Aldous Huxley."

"The havelies were the residence of wealthy merchants who had a fancy for beauty and art. Nine months in a year they lived in far off lands to earn money and then came to this city to rest and enjoy and build havelies and live in them, show their wealth and status, their love , fascination for architecture and colours."

The juxtaposition of the handpainted words like 'Modern' and 'school' in these lanes captures the way the old & the new co-exist.

A parked cycle in a decaying entrace....

...and wiring indicate habitation in some of these havelis

Lanes like these are such a rarity in Rajasthan which is mostly buzzing with people & markets through the day.

Some of the Havelis show mixed architectural influences.

As one walks through these labyrinths of beauty, one can't help but wonder about their upkeep & maintenance. Many of Jaisalmer's Havelis are maintained by either the families who constructed them or by the Archeological Survey of India, I didn't see any such signs here.

And just when you feel like you are walking through a giant and empty film or theater set, suddenly a childs head pops out & surprises you.